The Woman At The Well By Pat Olver

Devotional Thought from Jesus Encounter with The Samaritan Woman

By Pat Olver

I would like to talk to you about some of my thoughts about an encounter Jesus had with the Samaritan Woman in John 4:

This is one of my favourite stories. Every time I read it or even think about this story, I discover something more about Jesus and, about myself & it changes me.

This is the story from John 4: 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Let me take you back to the setting of this awesome story. The text says Jesus “had to go through Samaria.” Now Samaria was a region that most Jews avoided as they thought of those coming from Samaria (Samaritans) as being “unclean.” A religious word in their day that meant unacceptable to “normal” society. Many Jews would skirt around this “unclean” area but Jesus had to go through Samaria. I believe, the reason He had to go to Samaria is that His Heavenly Father told Him he had to. Jesus spent time before He proceeded with His day, communicating with His Heavenly Father. He said, “I do nothing on my own, everything I do I do is from My Father.” I would assume that Jesus’ Heavenly Father gave Him direction for the day and told Him that He “must go through Samaria.”

What many people do not realize is that even though Jesus was fully God, He chose to live fully as a man, just as we are & was empowered by the Holy Sprit to do the many miracles & works He was instructed to do from His Heavenly Father. I know - that is deep but it should give us hope that we too can live like this. Getting our orders from our Heavenly Father and doing the works He instructs us to do and being empowered by Holy Sprit. I have heard some call living life like this living naturally, supernaturally! How fun is that?!

So to continue the story Jesus sat down at mid day by a well and was tired and hungry so He sent the disciples off to town for something to eat. When they left along came the Samaritan woman. Again a little background: This woman came in the heat of the mid day at a well outside the town. Normally water was drawn in the morning, not in the heat of the day. There was a well within the city so she chose to be alone, coming out of the town to this well Out of rejection? or fear,? - we can only guess. Then we see an amusing dialogue between Jesus and this woman. Jesus asks for water. The woman is amazed, “Why are you asking me, a woman, and a Samaritan to bring you water.” She knew the custom did not allow a Jew to talk to a Samaritan & certainly not a woman. Jesus answered “If you knew the life-giving water I give, you would ask & never be thirsty again.” She said, “Oh yes, let me have that water.” Okay, Jesus said, “Bring your husband & I will tell you of the water.” “Oh,” she said, “I have no husband.” “That’s right,” Jesus replied, “You have no husband, but have had 5 husbands, & now the one you are with you are just living with.” (Can you see the possibilities here? Why she felt like an outcast & going to the well alone? Especially in the religious restraints & customs of the times? I can). “Wow,”. She said, “are you a prophet?” Then she left her jug by the well & ran in to the town. The whole town came out to see what had changed this lady. “Now we have heard for ourselves.” This outcast woman was not only the first preacher but was a woman to boot. That should rock some religious ideologies. The woman did not only leave her empty jug by the well, she left her shame there with Jesus.

So many things in this passage. This is the first person that Jesus officially revealed to that He was the Son of God. And I assume that it was the Fathers will that Jesus talk to her as Jesus had said, “He must go to Samaria.” In Did she have a hungry heart, was she crying out to God to reveal Himself, what made this lady get the attention of Almighty Heavenly Father. What made Jesus’ Father instruct Jesus to go this way, leaving the crowds who were surely also in need of His teaching & healing to go to a lonely lady deemed unclean?

Second point: Jesus took the time to seek His Father & then went where He was asked. God used the ordinary things like hunger & thirst to stop Jesus at the well for this divine appointment. He does the same with us. Sometimes in just a need to run to the store we can have a divine encounter if we are sensitive to His Spirit. Or in our regular work day or time at home with family. If we seen life as a series of divine encounters, it would change us. It may just be a needed smile, a word of encouragement, a prayer, just ;poking around & marvelling at His Creation, whatever. Everyday life can be a series of divine encounters. Then, as the story continues, the disciples come back & offer Jesus the food He had sent them for & He said basically He was not hungry anymore, “My food is to do the will of my Father.” Doing God’s will is more satisfying than eating.

Third Point: Jesus was instructed to leave the crowds & to go through Samaria for just one person. We should never discount the effect we may have or the importance we have as we encounter one person. It may be our child, our spouse, our co-worker. Because of that one encounter that woman was changed & she influenced a whole town to come out & talk to Jesus for themselves.

Fourth point: Jesus was not distracted by the woman’s questions about religion. How or where to worship was clearly not the answer to knowing God. He wants us to come to Him and have a personal encounter and it clearly does not matter where that encounter is; it just matters Who it is with. He wants us to worship Him in Truth and in Spirit. Sound elusive? Not really. Later, In Mathew 11:28-30 (MSG) He said it this way: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” I would imagine that that lady, upon hearing these life-altering truths from Jesus will never be the same. I imagine her living freely once she was secure in the One love she had been probably searching for all her life.

Fifth point: Having an encounter with Jesus never leaves you the same. I picture this lady as a very insecure misfit. (Its my interpretation from the story). Then along comes Jesus! She goes back to the town that she had avoided and said, “Come see someone who knows everything about me!” The people from the town could see that she was changed. Was it her demeanour? was it her countenance? was it how she spoke? Clearly, Jesus said many things to her, that we never know but one thing is clear - she was changed. She had went out at mid day to a well, inconveniently out of the way to avoid people, & returned to town boldly proclaiming the change inside of her. Jesus “knew” everything about her. I would have loved to hear this conversation. I am sure He told her things she may not even have known about herself. Her disappointments, her dreams, her broken heart. He does that, then He lifts us above the disappointments we have been through and the circumstances we are living in and gives us a divine encounter so that we are never, ever the same. I have often heard the expression, “I just have to find myself.” Letting Him find us radically changes our lives. Our church calls it “”Soul Care.” We have just gone through an 8 part Sunday series that demonstrates soul care. When He fills us with His Spirit, Rivers of living water fill us & they then flow out & everyone around you is affected. That’s what happened in this story.

I have been profoundly affected by this story from the first time I read it many, many years ago. It is as if I am imbedded in the story. Why, I have had to ask myself? Why does this story have such a profound effect on me. I came to this story once again, in a time when the world seems upside down and people are fearful of their future, for some direction. Then it came to me: I came to realize the reason this story is so important to me is that I AM THAT WOMAN AT THE WELL. WOW! I have felt like an outsider, a misfit, & growing up I recall many times of being just oh, so so lonely & misunderstood. It isn’t like I really understood that really until I studied this passage. The more I studied it, the more Holy Spirit would talk to me, like the woman at the well & I, like her want everyone to “come, see ......,”. Jesus reveals things to me about myself. I had lost a baby and thought that it was because I had done something wrong. Although I kept a happy facade, inside I felt lost, alone, a misfit (as I was told I could not have children), and misunderstood. He came to me and whispered these words, “I gave you your son as a gift.” Those words lifted the load I was carrying. I felt joy replace the depression. I opened my heart & invited Jesus to take over my life. It is impossible to be the same. I started a journey that has not left me the same. He understands me better than I do myself & gives me worth when I feel worthless. Many people have said, “I would have to give up so much if I was to give my life over to Jesus.” I agree, I had to give up so much: unforgiveness, bitterness, depression, poverty of spirit, sadness, worry, ungrateful ness; and the list goes on. And no more aloneness, He promises to “never leave me or forsake me.” I don’t know, I just really understand that woman when she says, “Come, see for yourself ...”. Just ask Him, He understands & once you ask for Him to take over you life, He will never, never leave you or let you go.

The world seems to continue to spin out of control but I know the One that holds not only the world, but He holds me and has promised to never leave me or forsake me. What Peace, not as the world gives He said , but His peace as I rest my worries and cares in His capable hands,